CBS Takes a Gamble on a Blitz of 'Falcone'

By BERNARD WEINRAUB

Published: March 29, 2000

HOLLYWOOD, March 28—
''Falcone,'' a new CBS series about the Mafia loosely based on the 1997 movie ''Donnie Brasco,'' is hardly making its debut in typical television style.

''Falcone'' will have its premiere on Tuesday from 9 to 11 p.m. But then, in a highly unusual move, the show will continue for the next seven nights (except Sunday) from 10 to 11 p.m.

As a result, the network -- and the show's creators and actors -- will know within a week if ''Falcone'' has found an audience and if CBS will continue making the show, since no other episodes have gone before the camera. No previous television series has succeeded or died so quickly.

''On the one hand we're absolutely thrilled because CBS is putting us on for eight nights -- it's a unique event for a series,'' said Bobby Maresco, who is part of a writing team with Ken Solarz that helped create the series. ''On the other hand, it's nerve-racking. If there's an audience we'll know right away and if there's not an audience, well, we'll know right away, too.''

The star of the show, Jason Gedrick, who plays an F.B.I. agent who goes undercover to join the New York mob, put it another way. ''It's a gutsy move by CBS; it's a huge gamble. It's giving the show a lot of credibility. It makes us all nervous.''

CBS is taking the gamble for three reasons.

The first is that the show will follow the National Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Basketball Championship game. CBS executives hope that male viewers who tune in to the championship game on Monday, when ''Falcone'' will be heavily promoted, will return the next night, giving ''Falcone'' a large audience for its two-hour premiere.

The second reason is that CBS, like the other networks, is struggling to retain audiences for its series through any strategem that would separate its shows from the rest of the pack. Network television audiences have diminished because of competition from cable and the Internet and because many shows are considered lame. Running ''Falcone'' for eight nights gives the series an unusual identity -- and a head start -- among its rivals.

Finally, CBS is seeking to quickly move onto the terrain of the highly successful HBO series ''The Sopranos,'' about New Jersey mobsters with middle-class aspirations. Although the HBO show's language, violence and sex would be unthinkable on network television, the critical and audience success of ''The Sopranos'' is obviously a source of envy for CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox.

''The fact that 'The Sopranos' has been extremely successful was part of our decision to go ahead with this show,'' said Leslie Moonves, president and chief executive of CBS television. He added: ''The show stands on its own with or without 'The Sopranos.' But there's no question that 'The Sopranos' added to our belief that this show had a good shot.''

The show is also unusual because it is based on the film ''Donnie Brasco,'' directed by Mike Newell and adapted by Paul Attanasio, from ''Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia,'' a memoir by Joseph D. Pistone and Richard Woodley. It is unusual for a film to be turned into a successful television series, although there have been a handful, including ''Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.''

Mr. Pistone led a double life as a law-abiding family man and an undercover agent for the F.B.I. The film starred Johnny Depp as Donnie Brasco, the alias for Mr. Pistone, and Al Pacino as a low-level hoodlum who acted as his mentor.

The television series came about after talks between Mr. Moonves and Mark Johnson, a producer of the film who is now an executive producer of the television series. Mr. Johnson said the name was changed from ''Donnie Brasco'' to ''Falcone'' to avoid confusion.

''We wanted to make clear that this was not the movie and that it was an entirely different animal,'' Mr. Johnson said. ''We got no mileage in calling the show 'Donnie Brasco.' The television show is not 'Donnie Brasco' on television. It was inspired by the same book that turned into the movie. But we're not trying to replicate it in any way.''

In contrast to the film, which dealt only marginally with Mr. Pistone's wife and children, Mr. Johnson said that the television series would focus on Mr. Pistone's troubled family life -- the potential physical dangers to his family as well as the emotional upheaval stirred by the F.B.I. agent's double life. In real life, Mr. Pistone is married with three daughters, but in the series he has two.

Besides Mr. Gedrick, who has had top roles on television shows like ''EZ Streets'' and ''Murder One'' as well as the mini-series ''Mario Puzo's 'The Last Don,' '' the show stars Titus Welliver, Robert John Burke, Lillo Brancato Jr. and Sonny Marinelli. Patti LuPone and Eric Roberts appear in recurring roles.

CBS executives said they could not recall a time when a series ran so many nights in such a short time span, although other types of shows have been on every night of the week.

At its start, the hugely successful ABC game show ''Who Wants to be a Millionaire'' ran 15 nights in a row. And in 1977, ''Roots,'' the television adaptation of Alex Haley's best-seller about slavery, ran eight nights in a row on ABC. But ''Roots'' was not a series like ''Falcone.''

''Falcone'' itself was hampered at the outset by its violent content. The series was tentatively set to appear last fall, but the high school killings in Colorado led Mr. Moonves to delay the series. ''Columbine happened a few days before we scheduled our shows,'' Mr. Moonves said. '''Falcone' was an adult drama. There was a certain violence in the piece. We thought the timing was bad. Now we don't.''

Photo: Sink or swim: Jason Gedrick, left, and Titus Welliver in the CBS series 'Falcone.' (Photograph by Monty Brinton/CBS)